Gran Turismo

I watched Gran Turismo early as part of Regal's Mystery Movie Monday. For some perspective, I've never watched professional racing or played Gran Turismo. And I'm generally not a fan of based-on-true-story against-all-odds movies. They're usually all the same.

The reason I say all this is to illustrate that the movie had to be really good to win me over. And it definitely does. Even though it goes through many of the same motions as these types of movies, it does it all so well. I was fully invested in the story, the characters and their outcomes. My crowd was really into it as well.

I can't speak to how the movie translates the game, but they creatively incorporate some cool visuals. It helps it feel like a video game movie as opposed to a movie about a video game. The race scenes are awesome, you really feel like you're there. I like the cast, with the two leads being the obvious standouts. And there are some really heartfelt moments.

I had a great time with Gran Turismo. It's definitely a movie you want to see on a premium screen (IMAX, Dolby Atmos, etc). I think most people will like it, gamer or not, race fan or not, old, young, etc.

(1 viewing, early screening Mystery Movie Monday 7/24/2023)

As a side note, I'm really hoping we've turned a corner with video game movies, similar to what happened to super hero movies in the early 2000's. I really enjoyed Sonic 1 and 2, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie is in contention for my favorite movie of the year.

There is still so much potential. If they continue down the super hero path, then someone like Christopher Nolan will take a property and show what can truly be done. My dream would be for Metroid to be the Dark Knight trilogy of video game movies.

What an absolutely fun romp of a movie that was done a great disservice by its advertising campaigns. Unlike its very bad marketing would have you believe this is a great watch with an engaging story, anger inducing antagonists and some amazing acting performances, David Harbour is especially good as Jan's main guy. Orlando Bloom was also very good and Archie Madekwe should Sue the trailer house for displaying his performance as anything other than stellar. The movie has some problems of course, some of the CGI is abysmal and feels like it was a mix of bad CGI and wanting to make it look like a video game at all times, and the end result is really distracting. Also the movie loves to just abandon characters that could really go somewhere. Overall though, it's a great watch and I would highly recommend you ignore the trailers (that give away a weird amount of the plot) and go watch this film.

I didn't know much about this movie before I watched it, except that it was based on a video racing game. To be honest, I expected something more akin to the cheesy Fast and Furious movies. I had set a very low bar of anticipation.

With that in mind, the reality of this movie was an enormously pleasant surprise: a fascinating true life story that magnificently captured the adrenaline buzz and accomplishments of elite motorsport.

The racing scenes, and there's a lot of them, were masterfully created. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat. It was an emotional rollercoaster; one minute I was grinning with euphoria, then gripping my hands in fear, then I was giggling out loud with a happy release of nervous energy.

Being a true life story, it couldn't be spoiled by poor plot writing. I loved the uplifting, feel-good, tale of the talented underdog risking all to achieve his dreams. Yet it wasn't a cliché because it was real; the movie had no sense of being formulaic or contrived.

The acting was spot on, the characters perfectly well developed, and the special effects were both awe inspiring and seamless.

The movie was enthralling from start to finish. It's absolutely a contender for being my favourite movie of the year. It's also one of my favourite motorsports movies of all time: and that's a compliment I don't give easily. How did this have so little buzz and anticipation before it was released?

Went into this not knowing the background of this film but came out pleasantly surprised with a great race car driving film but also a great video game film.

If it weren't a true story, the concept would have been cool but definitely not believable and therefore no where near as good as it is.

The racing and the direction taken to display the races was particularly impressive and at no point was it unclear what was going on. The acting was ok to begin with but got better as the film went on, especially with the emotional scenes. For me Harbour was the best actor in Gran turismo.

The script was fine but did it's job well of portraying the stakes in high intensity scenes.

Not really too much to fault as a true story racing film.

Here's The 4K Lowedown on the advanced screening of "Gran Turismo" (PG-13 - 2023 - Theater) Release date: August 11, 2023

Genre: Drama/Sport

My Score: 8.4 Cast=6 Acting=8 Plot=9 Ending=10 Story=8 Interest=9 Script=8 Cinema=9 Sport=7 Triumph=10

A struggling, working-class gamer, a failed former race car driver, and an idealistic motorsport exec risk it all to take on the most elite sport in the world.

"If you miss a line in the game, you reset...you miss it on the track, you could die." I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I think you have to at least have knowledge of the game to appreciate the cinematography, but this is not a video game movie. It checked all the boxes for me with the action, racing, and the triumph over adversity. This is definitely worth a watch and was a good change of pace after watching Oppenheimer.